Introduction: Reviewing the First Two Good Habits

Good morning, everyone. We continue our sharing on the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Actually, I feel a bit embarrassed discussing this book, as I am essentially using someone else's work to express my own ideas. However, let's consider it as me using his book to present some of my own points and reflections. Of course, I will try to be humble and not sound too arrogant! But in reality, I genuinely believe I explain things more clearly than he wrote them. One of my strengths is that whatever I come across, I simplify it.

I like simplicity, and we can all discuss our views on it. Some of us here are highly educated, while others may not have had much education. Let me tell you, simplifying things is not a simple task; making things complex is very easy. Today, as we study The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, have you ever wondered why you are reading it? Are you reading it because you have nothing better to do? Why are you listening to me lecturing here? Because of a very simple reason: habits shape destiny.

I grew up in a place called Liu Bai Hu (Six Hundred Households), because there were six hundred families there. The village had all kinds of bad kids, and of course, some good ones too. I belonged to the good kids' group, but the bad kids were intimidating. In our time, those who wore bell-bottoms didn't look like good people; those bad kids wore bell-bottoms, but now wearing bell-bottoms is quite fashionable. They would stand in groups of three or five on the street, and I would always walk around them. If I didn't, and tried to pass through them, what if they threw stones at me? This was the kind of group that later had people in jail, some died in jail, some were stabbed to death, and some stabbed others to death. So, your habits determine your destiny.

One of the most critical things in a person's life is that ignorance is fatal. From ancient times to the present, from the pre-Qin to the Han dynasties, I enjoy reading these histories. Because history reveals the rise and fall of nations, and there's also a great program called The Rise of Great Powers, which I also enjoy watching. If you just wander around on the streets all day, what will you get out of it? So ignorance is fatal, wasting time on aimless wandering. I don't know what they're wandering for, what they can find. Later I understood, all they find is runny poo. Eat, shit, and repeat, like a defecation machine. If a person has no knowledge in their head, what can they do? Nothing, only develop a habit of ignorance. So, a person cannot live like a cat.

A person's life is a human life, not a dog's life. But some people joke that they live like a dog, which sounds awful. Others say they live like a cat, but cats have their lives, dogs have their lives, and humans have their lives. So, habits are crucial. In the previous two chapters, we discussed being proactive and beginning with the end in mind. So, people must have goals in life; without goals, they can only live day to day. Therefore, we will discuss Chapters Four and Five, which are about beginning with the end in mind. But why is Chapter Three considered the first good habit? Because the first two chapters were an overview; the first good habit is in Chapter Three, which is being proactive.

Can everyone remember what being proactive and being reactive mean? If you can't, it's okay, listen again. If you are exposed to these ideas from a young age, understand being proactive, understand beginning with the end in mind, understand putting first things first from Chapter Five, you will definitely become a shrewd person. Let's think about it, being reactive is quite common. If I proactively lose my temper, is that proactive or reactive? If I am so angered by someone that I am about to explode, would you say I am proactive or reactive? The answer is reactive.

So, being proactive means we think through things in our minds and decide what we should do; that is being proactive. If I am reactive all day, get angry when others provoke me, happy when others tell jokes, sad when others tell sad stories, and fly into a rage when others annoy me, I will be very uncomfortable and reactive. That's when we talk about emotional management and beginning with the end in mind.

We Chinese say, How can we know death, if we do not yet know life? We cannot judge this statement. Actually, it should be, If we do not know death, how can we know life! If we do not know that death is the end for everyone, we will take living too seriously. So judging things at the end is meaningless. Should we get angry when others provoke us? Even if others intentionally provoke us, I can choose not to be angry, because I can manage my own emotions.

If we get angry even when others don't intentionally provoke us, then we become a punching bag. So being reactive is fatal. The topic we are going to discuss this time is Putting First Things First. I hope everyone will preview it before I lecture. Squeeze out time to read, even if it means sacrificing time for shitting and eating. I also need to read this book. Or download a PDF version online, because many are free.

The content of Putting First Things First sounds great. I think life is like playing chess, and I also enjoy watching people play Go. One day, I received an information about Go on my phone, and I clicked on it and found that the explanation was very good. It talked about a person playing Go with AlphaGo. AlphaGo played well, making every move ruthlessly.

A ninth-dan player was playing Go with AlphaGo, and halfway through the game, AlphaGo had already occupied all four corners. At this point, the game was unplayable. Why am I talking about playing chess? Am I digressing? No! I am clear! I ask everyone a question: Two people are playing chess, one wins and one loses. During the game, each person takes one step at a time. What happened in between?

Whether it's Chinese chess, Go, or any other chess, why does one win and one lose? Some say it's because the order of the moves is different, and that's exactly it! When two people play chess, you take a step, I take a step. If I always make the important moves, and you make the unimportant ones, then I will definitely win. When two armies fight, one wins and one loses. What happened? One person always makes the most important move, while the other always makes the unimportant move. That's why it's called putting first things first. When it's your turn to move, you can only move one piece, not ten at once; moving ten is cheating.

If you play Chinese chess and immediately advance the pawn, you will never win. When I was in college, I had a classmate from Yunnan, and they called the pawn Xiao Cui (Little Emerald). When we played chess, he would tell us to advance Xiao Cui, which made us all laugh. If you always advance Xiao Cui, you will become Xiao Cui, and how can you win! Moving the chariot, the knight, and the cannon are the most important moves.

People must always remember that every day there is one most important thing. If every day is filled with unimportant things, and the important things are squeezed out, suddenly one day you look back and find that there is no one behind you, and you are at the very end. If you always advance Xiao Cui, who else would be at the end but you? If you advance Xiao Cui your whole life, you have done the most unimportant thing.

Improving Efficiency, Creating Value

So in a person's life, out of twenty-four hours a day, how many important things have you done, and how many unimportant things have you done? A person has limited time in a day. Because you need to live, to earn money to support your family. What to do? You can only continue. But there is one important thing you haven't done, and you can only be busy supporting your family every day. The example I give is not from the book, but you will find that what I say is the same as the author's concept, which is what we do with our time every day.

I give you an example: for those who read, the speed of reading files and documents is crucial. So what should I do? If I can't finish reading, what should I do? Although I was promoted relatively quickly, I didn't know how to do the work at first, and piles of documents were stacked there, and I didn't know what to do. In the end, I could only try to read desperately, but I still couldn't finish. Can everyone give me an idea? Some people suggested that I read the important ones and distribute the others. But that's all my own work, who can I distribute it to?

Others suggested that I grasp the key points and prioritize, but these are not solutions to the problem. If I can double my reading speed, and finish ten hours of work in five hours, will I still be busy? I won't be busy. So I spend one to two hours every day improving my reading speed. So reading speed is very important. If my reading speed doesn't improve, I can't do this job. People are willing to pay that money, but you can't do it, isn't that upsetting? So whatever I do, the first thing I think about is how to improve efficiency. If I dawdle, the work will only increase, and efficiency will not improve. If I'm not busy, who is?

In the past many years, eighty percent of the time I went to bed after 2 AM. Is it because people gave me high salaries and I was desperately working overtime? No, it's because I couldn't finish the work they gave me, so I desperately improved my learning. So learning is very important. As long as I am in that position, I put learning in the most important place, that is, I need to learn to be competent for this job.

After half a year to a year of learning, I quickly turned things around. When I first took on that position, I didn't know how to do anything, and the work was all new. But new work and new problems couldn't stop me from thinking and studying every day, because learning can make me competent for this job. And in less than a year, my life was completely turned around. As long as I can persist for half a year, after half a year, I will definitely get off work at 6 PM to 7 PM.

I have finished all my work, and I have nothing else to do. But what do I do with the extra time? Set up a stall on the street? Watch people play chess? Watch people advance Xiao Cui? Go home and sleep? Watch movies? Watch TV dramas? None of those. I know that many people are TV drama fans, watching episode after episode, and can watch more than twenty episodes at once. If you love watching TV dramas, your head will be full of TV dramas, but TV dramas cannot be eaten.

For decades, I have never watched movies or TV dramas. Can you imagine that? You may laugh at me. Not only do I not watch TV dramas, I also don't play computer games, because I think they are tiring. If I go to the cinema to watch a movie, it's all dark inside, and I feel dizzy afterwards. You may think that I don't know how to enjoy life, but not many people live better than me. Why? Because after I finish my work, I enjoy what I do.

I later studied carefully, who lives the best? A person who is always joyful lives the best. I often serve those who are always conflicted, sometimes conflicted, sometimes not, back and forth. There are many people like that. If you were me, you would be annoyed to see it. People must have joy, people must study how to live. This I can definitely share with everyone. No matter what I do, I enjoy it. When I was in school, I enjoyed school. When I was working, I enjoyed working.

If I don't enjoy school when I'm in school, and I feel overwhelmed just thinking about school, but my eyes light up and I feel energetic when I play games, what kind of life is that? I think people like that live in conflict, and working will be even more conflicting. But I am not conflicted, I enjoy working. There are also many challenges in my work, and as a result, things definitely turn around in less than a year.

The longest time it took me to turn things around was building a church. Because I didn't know how to build a church at first, it was quite upsetting. Later I turned things around. Like serving people, how many people serve like me? None. They all treat it as a chore, but I treat serving as a grace, because this is my job. Maybe you want to know my logical system, I will tell you a basic logical system, and you can try it on yourself.

If you create a value, for example, you are a salesperson, and you get one order after another, how will you feel? You will definitely be very happy. If you haven't gotten an order, when everyone has a sales meeting, you will be at the very end, wishing you could dig a hole to hide in. Because the boss will ask you why you haven't gotten an order and ask you to learn from others. At this time, you will definitely be conflicted and uncomfortable, that feeling is like eating a dung beetle, very uncomfortable. Every meeting is like eating a dung beetle, maybe even eating the dung ball together.

Who enjoys the most? When a person creates value, that person enjoys it. If a person comes back from watching a movie, singing karaoke, eating a banquet, wandering around, etc., after doing these things, it is difficult for the person to enjoy it, because he has not created value. So when a person can create value, and then enjoy the value, you will gain joy from it. If a person is conflicted again and again throughout his life, that is called a conflicted life. Other people are top students, and you are a conflict master. That is also a hegemon, the hegemon of the conflicted kingdom.

How can you achieve these seven good habits? We have already talked about two good habits: being proactive, not being proactive and playing games all day, or being proactive and talking nonsense all day, but being proactively creating value. As long as you are there, that place will become cleaner, more orderly, and better. The second good habit is beginning with the end in mind, setting goals and moving towards them step by step. As you walk, you will reach the top. I also tell you the second basic principle: being above people is enjoyable; being below people is more difficult.

I tell you a few examples, a college student who has just graduated, in his twenties, goes out to find a job, and people can tolerate you. Because you are a new graduate, you don't understand many things, and it doesn't matter if you don't have work experience. But when you are thirty years old, doing the same work as a recent college graduate, knowing nothing when asked, and your head is full of chaos, everyone will be annoyed by you. People may still be wondering what you did when you graduated from college, what you did when you graduated from middle school.

Some people are thirty in the blink of an eye, and as a result, they still can't support themselves and still rely on their families, it is difficult not to be conflicted. How can you live this life? I don't know how to live it. Some people are twenty-seven or eight in the blink of an eye, then thirty in the blink of an eye, then forty in the blink of an eye. Then, they look at themselves and look at the world, and find that they cannot stand on their own in society. What's going on? But these are all chess moves they made themselves, the paths they walked themselves.

Everyone must cultivate good habits. Life is a peculiar journey; one cannot afford to be doing the work of a fresh graduate at forty, as employers will not look favourably upon it. A person in their forties searching for employment may find themselves undesirable. However, if you are skilled, you might secure a position as a CEO or at least some form of director. Consider carefully how to allocate your twenty-four hours each day. By your forties, you should ideally be a director at the very least, earning perhaps twenty thousand when others earn two thousand. Some command annual salaries of three million, others seven million, and some one and a half million.

These individuals also leave work on time, engaging in their daily routines without neglecting their essential needs. Some, earning meagre salaries of two to three thousand, struggle with frustration. This is closely tied to prioritising important matters. Neglecting the most critical tasks leads to an accumulation of trivial ones. The reason I lead you in reading this book is to foster lasting joy and happiness. When confronted with challenges, even fierce battles, the joy experienced after securing victory and reaping the spoils of war can linger for a considerable time.

Thus, one should strive to be a victor, making steady progress, undeterred by setbacks, for progress of any kind is superior to stagnation. Today, let us re-evaluate the priorities in our lives, discerning what truly holds significance. Personally, I find learning to be paramount. The sheer amount of time I dedicate to learning is immense. Why? Because without learning, efficiency cannot be enhanced, tasks remain incomplete, and dissatisfaction persists. This dissatisfaction only intensifies, creating an endless cycle. Only self-improvement can address this fundamental issue.

Prioritising Tasks

To propel progress, we must encourage advancement. While some advance more swiftly than others, the pace is inconsequential as long as progress is maintained. Moreover, personal growth follows an exponential trajectory throughout life. Today, we must prioritise the essential. Many struggle with time management, so let us embark on a journey of learning to manage our time effectively.

This book begins with the quote: Important things must never be at the mercy of things that are not important. This was written by the German poet Goethe. From a habitual perspective, effective management necessitates independent will. This term I find a bit difficult, not sure what it means, is an academic term, mainly to tell you that you must have the habit of being able to make independent decisions.

In the eighth paragraph of this chapter, Gray writes in The Common Denominator of Success that he has been working to study the commonalities that exist in successful people, and he found that the determinants of success are not hard work, extraordinary luck, and good interpersonal relationships. Although these factors have a pivotal influence on a person's success, they are not as important as another more important factor, that is, the habit of putting first things first.

Gray says: Successful people are able to do what failures are unable to do, even if they are unwilling to do so, but for the sake of their ideals and goals, they can still overcome psychological obstacles with perseverance. What he means is that he has found a commonality in highly effective successful people who put important things first every time. How to manage time when the most important things and trivial things are mixed together is knowledge, so let's talk about this knowledge.

The order of things is very important. Once I went to a lesson, and the teacher took a wide-mouthed biscuit jar with a slightly larger stone, some glass balls, some water and sand in it. He poured the water in first, then put in the sand, then the glass balls, and finally the big stone, which could not be put in at all. We thought that these things just couldn't be put in.

Later, the teacher poured these things out, put the big stone in first, then put the glass balls in and shook it, then poured the sand in and shook it, and finally poured the water in, and found that all of them were put in and not filled. After I finished the lesson, the teacher gave me a demonstration, and I thought it was magical, the order of putting things cannot be wrong. What happens if the order is wrong? Some things can't be put in.

I'll give you a very, very obvious example, recently I'm training my co-workers on how to write software, and the training intensity for writing software is still quite high, because they are quite old, they are all retired, and it is quite hard, but they still learn to write software every day. After three months, the programs were also written, and nothing was disturbed, don't you think it's magical? How did he not miss anything? You will feel very surprised.

Many of us are studying abroad, and after finishing our studies, we want to get a higher degree. At that time, they not only had to work, but also had to study in their spare time. After studying, they also had to come to the church to serve, and the intensity of the service was quite high. Later, they found it very magical, they got their degrees, they served, they worked, they made money, and they were very good people, they didn't miss anything.

Later, these people stopped studying for degrees, because they had already obtained their degrees, but they were still doing those things. This is strange, they were doing those things when they were studying for degrees, and now they are not studying, but they are also doing those things, mainly because they didn't put the time in. Later, I gradually learned a very magical thing, that is, a person can put a lot of things in his life. If you do the important things and put the important things in, what will happen as a result? As a result, nothing will be delayed.

It is quite obvious that we are Christians. Let me give you an example. We have to attend Sunday Mass on Sundays, and there are small group Bible studies, service, and leading prayers on weekdays. Then you will find a very magical thing, that is, nothing is delayed. Don't you think it's magical? I think it's very magical. Later, I developed a habit of trying to fill my time as much as possible, and arranging all the important things.

So, the more you grow, the faster you do things, and the faster you do things, the more you grow. The value created in this life is beyond what I imagined. Training batches of people, and finally nothing was delayed. How did I do it? Because first things first. The idea I'm talking about is that time management is very important. Management is about what to do first and what to do later is very important.

Our common people generally think that it doesn't matter whether things are done first or later. It doesn't matter whether you wash the dishes before you wash the bowls, or wash the bowls before you wash the dishes, because you have to finish washing the bowls in the end. But is it really the same? It's not the same. Why do I do housework quickly? Because I am an intellectual, so I use my brain to the fullest when I do things. Unlike some people, I don't use my brain when I do things.

For example: the countertop of my kitchen sink is very small, the sink is also very small, and there is a large pile of bowls that need to be washed, so what do I do? I will wash one bowl, then rinse it clean, and put it back in its original place. Then I will wash another bowl, rinse it clean, and put it back in its original place. This is what I do. If the countertop of my kitchen sink is very large and the sink is also very large, I will wash the bowls in a different way. I will prepare soapy water first, put the washed bowls on the countertop, and then rinse them all together at the end, so the order of doing things is ever-changing.

The things I do, if they are things I do often, will have many versions. I use version one today, and after a while I will change it to version two, because the method has changed and the efficiency has doubled. After a while, I will change it to version three, or after a while, I will upgrade it again, because I will not stay in the 2G Nokia era forever. That's why I work fast, and ordinary people can't compare to me, because I always change the way I do things and improve myself. I study every day and think about it every day, and finally after the efficiency increases, I finish both the important and the unimportant things, and nothing is delayed.

Making Plans for Doing Things

So in this place, don't be led by the nose by trivial matters, put the important things first. I'll give you another example, you can think about it after you hear it. If we are a civil aviation company, if we don't do the important things well, then the plane will fall down when it flies up. If the plane falls down, a lot of work will be generated, compensation and a lot of other things.

If we do what we should do in our work, the plane can take off and land normally without any accidents, which will save a lot of trouble. I also want to tell you that this kind of situation is quite common. For example: we do the work wrong, and then start to modify it, but when we modify it, we need to disassemble and reassemble it. At this time, one thing happens, and one thing becomes many things. Not only is time wasted, but it may not be assembled correctly.

Why not plan things in advance, plan them well, use your brain a little, and do them right once? Some things can't be messed up, for example: building a tall building, always urging it to be built quickly, but when it is built to the tenth floor, the building collapses, so what should we do at this time? When the building collapses, the garbage needs to be cleaned up, the raw materials are also wasted, and it has to be rebuilt. Wouldn't it be great if we could do things right once.

So, planning is very important. Many people who write plans don't know how to write them, and they don't know how to plan what they should do and what they shouldn't do. The author is talking about the fourth generation of time management, although what I'm talking about is not the same as what the author wants to express. But it doesn't matter, you can read it again and then compare it. When we do these things, if we can't do them right once, you will spend a lot of time.

Many people don't know how to make plans, planning is about putting first things first. What to do, how to do it, when to do it, to what extent to do it, and why to do it, that's planning. Why to do it is the goal, and the goal must be clear. These are the basic elements of making a plan in a person's life. If you can't answer them, don't mess around. I know many people like to mess around, and they do it for nothing, it's useless.

So the plan is what is the most important thing at this moment, and whether what I want to do is clear. Learning and work should be separated. Some people advocate learning while working, but I encourage everyone to separate learning and work. Why? For example: you don't know how to build a building, then don't build it, because it will be troublesome if it collapses after it is built, and it will be even more troublesome if a few people die. How to learn, planning and construction should be separated, don't plan and construct at the same time, it is impossible to do well.

Learning and work should be separated, and planning and implementation should be separated. If you can figure out these things and put them into practice, you will be great. How to separate them? For example: if I want to write a program, if I write it directly, I will write it wherever it goes, and in the end I don't even know what I wrote. The code I write is incomprehensible to anyone, and it also causes complaints. After the complaint, I still can't find the problem.

Later, the company hired a new programmer. As a result, the new programmer suggested that the boss redo it, but there was no plan to redo it, and he started writing code directly. In the end, he also found that he couldn't write it, so the customer complained again, the problem was still not solved, and he resigned himself. Later, another new programmer came, and he also suggested that the boss redo it.

What happened during this period? Because there was no plan, and construction started before the plan was clear enough. If you ask me, what should I do? I will first think about things clearly, and write down the plan and construction plan clearly, this thing should be written like this, and that thing should be written like that. Then I repeatedly deliberate on my plan, of course I have experience. After a week, the project was completed.

Many people just mess around without a plan, and they can't go on after messing around. If you are fighting on the battlefield, things are changing in an instant, and you don't have time to respond at all, so you have to plan before the battle. In The Art of War, it is called ingenious calculation, which means planning in the room and planning well. When you get to the battlefield, you have a gun but no bullets, which is very annoying. The logistics are not supplied, there is no plan, there is no planning, and it is a mess.

Planning and construction should be separated. If there are no blueprints for building a building, how can you build it? Some people say that they plan often, but they never do it. This is also considered separation, but it is a complete separation. Learning and work should be separated, because when you see problems in your work, you find that you don't know how to do it. If you try hard to do it, you will not only be exhausted, but also waste time. When I see that I don't know how to do this, I will first sort things out clearly, which ones I can do, and which ones I can't. I will study at home if I can't do them, and I don't need to worry.

When you learn to do it, there will still be problems, and there will be more problems when you don't know how to do it. So we are all growing in learning, what we know is not difficult, and what we don't know is difficult. So, it is very important to learn often. First of all, you have to learn how to live. In a person's life, you have to reorganize these things, plan them, and then do them, and constantly complete this cycle. Many people write superficial plans, but they are useless.

If you are a new manager in your job, and there are more than twenty employees below you, and you don't know how to manage people and things, what should you do? First learn how to manage people and things, and don't mess around. If you mess around, the employees will look down on you, and you will also look down on the employees, and in the end the work will not be completed at all. So we must first learn, and then try on a small scale, repeatedly, and finally solve the problem, this is my personal experience summary.

Don't be rigid, spend more time on how to do it. First ask yourself what to do, and don't do things that are meaningless. Second, can you do things, and if you can't do them, learn first, don't worry, because you will be in trouble if you worry. Then try on a small scale while learning, and after success, implement it on a large scale, and have a construction plan before implementation.

My construction plan is so detailed that I can explain the specific implementation steps of each nail in my mind or in my construction plan clearly. If you build God's temple and build God's church, you must learn how to build it and implement it according to God's will. I encourage everyone to be a person who learns and grows constantly. You cannot but rejoice in your learning and in your growth. I hope the content I have shared will bring you some benefit, may God bless you all!